Pentagon bizarro-tech chiefs have issued a requirement for mysterious sensor systems which would be able to peer through concrete walls to produce a complete internal picture of a building. US Forces would use such kit for "overseas urban building interior awareness".
The new plans are known as "Comprehensive Interior …

It's been done.

@Peter Thompson

[nerd]Nope, Robocop had a thermal imaging mode that let him see through walls that he was next to. It let him save the mayor from the previous mayor who was enraged that the SWAT team captain offered him a blaupunkt in his 6000SUX. [/nerd]

Which wouldn't work anyway, I mean it's a wall. Heat doesnt' get passed through it quick enough to produce an accurate image of where people are. So they need something that'll pass through walls and be absorbed by them, just not a lot.

Plus it wouldn't be accepted as he had to be IN the building before he could use it, rather than outside a 20M perimeter.

These warboffinry types are really setting the bar surprisingly high with this request.

Staring at goats?

Robocop? Pah!

Come on, guys! Robocop is SO off the mark.

I remember, in the often overlooked and under-appreciated film, Sneakers, River Phoenix's character managed to get the complete blueprints of Ben Kingsley's character's head office for just 50 bucks from the local County Records Office (he took the 50 bucks from Dan Ackroyd's character's wallet!).

All the US military has to do is send some geeky teenager to the local County Records Office of the building they need the info on and hand over 50 dollars. By my reckoning they can get the full flippin' blueprints of hundreds of buildings for the development costs alone.

sound off

What no 3D imagery based on sound & echos? Aren't we clever enough to use the bounce back from two lasers in order to detect sound from spatially distinct locations on a building and reconstruct a 3D image from them? Wow, what a waste of super-compute power.

@Luis Ogando

Knowing the adversary, they may have done some constructive (or perhaps destructive) remodeling in the time they've occupied the building. You know, knock down some walls, board up some doors, dig that escape tunnel... Plus the community in which the device is to be used may not HAVE the blueprints. Perhaps even the building was built ad-hoc, without blueprints at all. In any of these scenarios, maps are either unavailable or untrustworthy.

Don't harp at DARPA this time. This is an actual call for something of military significance (significant recon tech), similar to the call for low-radar-cross-section (stealth) aircraft. THAT actually got us somewhere. Perhaps this could provide some surprise breakthroughs and allow soldiers to tell insurgents, "We know where you are! You cannot hide from us!"...and really mean it.

DARPA pie in the sky proposals

People really love to poke fun at DARPA's off the wall proposals. Imagine it's 1968 and you saw a proposal like this:

DARPA plans on launching an ambitious project to allow users anywhere in the world to share information electronically. The implementation should involve no less than 500 different vendors somehow agreeing to the necessary standards. The system will initially allow government entities, research labs, universities and other institutions to share research data. Future expansion will allow individuals at home to purchase products from companies without ever setting foot in an actual store. Instant communication will be enabled, including the transmission of full length movies and television shows. Eventually, this system will evolve to the point that users will be able to waste time by posting snide comments about each other etc. etc....

tried and true technique

Offshore?

Ha, the first people who will want to get their hands on this are the DEA so they can spot indoor pot growers. Just hook up to the utilities and you can spy on anyone. As for 1M resolution, anyone entering the structure had better watch out for the Claymores likely to be lurking behind those stud walls. Besides, I would think much of this can already be done much more readily using infrared and millimeter wave imaging and in a much more rapid fashion. As in real time. DARPA are like AIG. They once served a useful purpose but now it seems they are like NASA increasingly trying to find some way to justify their ongoing existence by coming up with increasingly wacky research proposals which are usually pointless. I think if I were a Marine about to enter a structure inhabited by hostiles I'd want something a bit more robust. I suppose it might be useful for targeting a JDAM but otherwise it seems pretty useless and redundant.

I'm putting on my coat because Elvis has obviously left the building. I'd use Paris but she has too much resolution.